The return toward a former state after damage. Recovery is rarely restoration — what returns is changed.
Old French recovrer, from Latin recuperare (to get back, to regain), related to capere (to take); recovery is a getting-back, and the root makes no promise that what returns is unchanged by having been lost.
The return toward a former state after damage. The root's getting-back is rarely a full restoration — what comes back has usually been changed by the getting.